Anne-Sophie Cochevelou, was born in 1990, Toulon (FR) and continues to live and work in London. She is a young French artist who has developed an artistic work of a singularly performatic nature,which is inspired by many different universes, including performances, happenings, theatre or fashion. Anne-Sophie develops her own costumed performances, which question the interaction that links the artist to their public. She has performed at the”Barbican Centre”, the “Battersea Art Centre”, the “Brighton Fringe Festival”, and at the “Camden People’s Theatre”.

In her colourful and diverse creations that explore the concept of “wearable art”, Anne-Sophie Cochevelou use of objects unearthed in car boot sales and flea markets, which she recycles to give them a new life.

1. How would you like to describe your brand?

My brand is in between fashion and wearable art. Most of my material is ethically sourced in car boot sales and charity shop. I like to use common reference objects like toys and turn them away from their original function to create bespoke and unique design.

2. What inspired you to create your brand?

As an artist I am like a sponge absorbing all the creative vibe, so can be inspired by anything consciously or unconsciously. An exhibition, a performance, an original street style look… I also try to surround myself with really colorful and inspiring people. More specifically, toys and colorful objects & childhood inspire me.

3. If you get a chance to describe Sophie Cochevelou in three words, what would it be?

Colorful, Quirky, and performative

Photo Credit : Anthony Lycett

4.What is your daily routine?

People think I have a glamorous life style but I live quite like a monk! I don’t wake up that early but I work all day in my studio and eat at fixed hours! Actually I don’t like the term “daily routine” because all my day are different, that is what I like about my job!

5. Are you more familiar with London or France?

Strangely, I feel closer to British culture. In fashion, I love their eccentricity and bold creativity that you don’t find in Paris where everything is more minimalistic.

Londoners seem to get my work better and to buy it and they seem to have adopted me as one of them.

6. How did you start in fashion industry?

I did an MA in Perfomance, Design and Practice, at Central Saint Martins. After graduation, I registered as freelance and started getting my first projects and meeting key people. But I am at the border, between fashion, performance & art so I don’t know if I am really part of the industry.

Photo Credit: Anthony Lycett

7. How do you define your style?

I like to have fun with clothes and find implausible mixes. I try not to avoid the stage of looking like a clown but my outfits often look like theatrical costumes.

8.Could you please describe us about your design process?

Everything come from necessity, I started from what I had and what I found. I feel like an hermit crab who doesn’t build his shell from scratch but take over abandoned one and make it his own by adapting it. I am not working like the majority of designers who starts from sketches and design, I begin directly with the material and try to find the design from that point, it is like a reverse process. Because I uses things that I find, like my friend Sue Kreitzman “Half my time is spent obsessively trawling for junk, and the other half, obsessively putting it all together.”

9.What makes your designs different from other brands?

They are all unique pieces made from material that I can’t find again, Sometimes a customer ask me if I they could buy one of my accessory they have seen on my online shop and which is out of stock. But if it is gone it is gone, which make it hard to sustain it commercially but it is part of the magic!

10.How do you come up with concepts for your design and marketing?

I don’t really know, ideas feed each other, they multiplies and create arborescence in your brain, usually my concepts come to my mind when I am cycling!

I want to grow organically, my dream would have to have my own studio in London and 5 or 6 people working for me, I know I will never be a multinational company, but be a small company keeping everything hand made an sustainable with an healthy profit would be the dream.